To Open Free Agency, B's Were Very Active But Did They Get Anyone That Will Make A Big Difference?

 

    When free agency opens in any professional sport, most fans just want to see their favorite team be active and engaged. When NHL free agency officially started today at noon, the Bruins were certainly as busy as any club in the league but when you run through all the names of guys that they signed, you are left wondering if any of them will have any type of major impact for Boston. Leaving out the four players that will most likely be stuck in Providence for most of (if not all of) next season, B's GM Don Sweeney brought in six legitimate NHL veterans. The most notable names are goaltender Linus Ullmark (formerly of the Sabres) and forward and former Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno. In addition, depth forwards Erik Haula and Tomas Nosek are here too along with defensemen Derek Forbort and Mike Reilly (who was traded to the Bruins before the trade deadline last season).

    Haha is that it? For a team that likes to think of themselves as true Stanley Cup contenders every season, it sure feels like Sweeney was trying to shop at The Dollar Store to get what he needs rather than spending a little more to get some better players. Jaroslav Halak signed with Vancouver and free agent Tuukka Rask is out for awhile following hip surgery so the B's needed a veteran goalie to work with promising young netminder Jeremy Swayman. That's fine and Ullmark had actually put up respectable numbers somehow on the worst team in the league in 2021: 9-6-3 w/.917 save percentage and a 2.63 goals against average. He's only 27 years old but did he really need a four-year contract with an annual cap hit of $5 million (faints)?

    Foligno feels a little bit like David Backes light and we all know how that went for the B's. A well-respected leader and dependable player that at 33 is definitely on the back end of his career after being traded to Toronto last season and not making many contributions to that loser franchise. In 49 games last season between the two teams, he had 20 points (7 goals, 13 assists). The former first-round pick (28th overall in 2006) got a two-year deal with an annual cap hit of $3.8 million. Haula is truthfully a journeyman since this will be his sixth NHL team but he is coming off a pretty nice little season in Nashville: eight goals, 10 assists & plus-21. For that, the 30-year-old earned a two-year contract with an annual cap hit of $2.375 million. Finally for the forwards, Nosek put up eight goals and 10 assists with a plus-seven rating for the Golden Knights in 38 games. Like Haula, he is 30 and he was signed for two years but with a lower annual cap hit ($1.75 million). Foligno could be insurance if David Krejci doesn't re-sign with Boston while Haula and Nosek should easily replace center Sean Kuraly who signed a four-year contract with his hometown team-the Blue Jackets-earlier today. 

    Reilly was a pleasant surprise in 15 games last season with the black and gold after being obtained from Ottawa as he notched eight assists and was plus-seven. In his first postseason with Boston, he slowed down to four assists and a plus-three rating in 11 games. On a good team (which the Bruins hopefully can still qualify as), he is a third-pair left-shot defenseman that is a solid puck-mover with some offensive ability. The fact that he's 27 is most likely why he signed a three-year deal with an annual cap hit of $3 million. I can't say that I know much about Forbort besides the fact that he's big (6-foot-4, 219 pounds) which is something that Boston really lacks on the back end and he averaged over 20 minutes of ice time last season with Winnipeg. He is 29 and with a three-year deal that carries an annual cap hit of $3 million, I'd guarantee that Sweeney expects him to be much more than Jarred Tinordi who signed with the Rangers this afternoon. 

    It would be dumb to make any sweeping conclusions already about this group since odds are that Sweeney still has some tinkering to do both in terms of additional signings and perhaps a few more trades (for instance, backup goaltender Dan Vladar got flipped to Calgary for a third-round pick this afternoon). You also have to remember that he signed Brandon Carlo, Taylor Hall-and to a much lesser extent Trent Frederic-in the past few weeks, who are likely to be more important moves this offseason in the long run when it's all said and done. I'll just leave this here: Jack Eichel is still on Buffalo and while it is probably a pipe dream that he'll ever be a Bruin, we can choose to hold out hope that Sweeney finds a way to acquire him for basically whatever it takes. Can you imagine your excitement level if Eichel was going to be a Bruin for a long period of time? 

Bruins Won Their Fourth Straight Game & Eliminated The Overmatched Caps In Five Games

 

    So it turns out that there really was no need to fear the overrated Capitals after all. The Bruins dispatched of them in only five games after taking Game 5 by a score of 3-1 tonight at the Capital One Arena in DC. After losing Game 1 in overtime and winning the next two games in overtime, Boston dominated in the final two contests as they outscored Washington by a combined score of 7-2. The B's head to the second round of the playoffs for the fourth season in a row-where they'll meet the Penguins or Islanders who are currently tied 2-2-while the Caps head home for the third consecutive year after a disappointing first round exit. For the Capitals, it must feel like a decade or more since they won that elusive Stanley Cup in 2018.

    This was a victory where the Bruins were led by many of their best players: goaltender Tuukka Rask (who was fantastic for the entire series) made 40 saves, captain Patrice Bergeron scored twice and right wing David Pastrnak added a highlight reel goal for the black and gold. This being the NHL playoffs, there was also much lesser known guys like defenseman Jarred Tinordi-he played 19:02 with four hits and three blocked shots in his Bruins playoff debut-who was fantastic in his unexpectedly vital role. It was a weird game as the Capitals outshot the Bruins 41-19 but trailed 2-0 in the third period before they tallied the fastest goal to start a playoff period in franchise history. Rask was not fazed by that and Bergy put it away with another clutch goal in a career full of them. 

    After no goals in the first three games of this series, Pasta is starting to heat up as he had a goal and assist in Game 4 and he matched that production this evening. He made Caps center Nic Dowd look silly when he did a sweet curl-and-drag move around him, drove to the net and wrapped a shot around goaltender Ilya Samsonov (16 saves). Defenseman Mike Reilly had the lone assist on the game's opening goal at 2:28 of the second period. Samsonov would probably want Bergeron's first goal back as it was a snap shot from distance. Reilly and Pastrnak had the assists on Bergy's second goal of the playoffs at 14:05 for a 2-0 Bruins lead. 

    UMass' Conor Sheary provided the lone positive note for Washington in Game 5 when he scored off his own rebound 11 seconds into the third period. He roofed a shot from in close that Rask couldn't react to in time to stop. Center T.J. Oshie and defenseman Dmitry Orlov notched the assists on Sheary's first goal of the postseason. Bergeron's second goal happened at 12:25 and while it was unassisted, he owed plenty of credit for it to Pasta who screened Samsonov at just the right time. 

    In the traditional handshake line after the game, Bergeron and former B's captain Zdeno Chara shared some words and a tight embrace which makes you wonder if that was Z's last NHL game. Boston will be one of the last eight clubs left in the playoffs and you have to acknowledge that they can play with anybody. As far as the Pens and Isles go, I think that besides rooting for a seven-game series, they want to see Pittsburgh (since they completely own them) rather than New York who is less talented but would be a major headache to face in a best-of-seven playoff series. Regardless, they get a few extra days to rest now which is very important if you want to make a serious run to the Cup.

The Bruins Lost 2-1 To The Capitals In A Completely Meaningless Regular Season Finale

 

    In a goofy scheduling quirk, Boston (33-16-7 overall, 15-9-4 away) had to go to DC tonight to play the Capitals (36-15-5 overall, 17-8-3 home) at the Verizon Center in their final game of the regular season, only to return there on Saturday night (7:15, NBC) for Game 1 of the first round of the NHL playoffs. With almost all of their best players benched, the Bruins' backups and lesser known guys mostly held their own against an almost full-strength Caps lineup but Washington won 2-1 thanks to a last-second goal. Veteran left wing Michael Raffl scored his first goal as a Capital (4th of the season) with three seconds left in regulation to clinch the victory (assisted by defenseman Justin Schultz) and thankfully avoid a needless overtime and/or shootout. Boston finished 4-2-2 against Washington in the regular season which should give them plenty of confidence heading into their fourth ever playoff series against the Capitals. 

    Rookie goaltender Jeremy Swayman (30 saves, 7-3-0) made the start for the B's and besides Raffl's fluky game-winner (over his shoulder from no angle), his only other mistake was coughing up a rebound which led to the tying goal for left wing Carl Hagelin in the second period. He crashed the net and put in the loose puck at 16:15 for his sixth goal of the season, assisted by Brown's Garnet Hathaway and some guy named Zdeno Chara. Washington's rookie goaltender Vitek Vanecek (21-10-4) made 24 saves in the victory and the only goal he allowed came earlier in the second period. Center Curtis Lazar drove to the net and was there to re-direct a feed from defenseman Jarred Tinordi. Left wing Jake DeBrusk had the other assist on Lazar's seventh goal of the season at 10:11.

    The Capitals seemed to have run the much bigger risk by having so many regulars play tonight but the Bruins turned out to be the team to suffer an injury as defenseman Jakub Zboril left with an upper-body injury in the second period and he never returned to action. I'd love to tell you when Games 2-4 will be but thus far, Game 1 is all that has been confirmed by the NHL. Regardless of when it all takes place, I think we all know that this is going to be a hell of a series. With the Penguins (37-16-3) facing the Islanders (32-17-7) in the other East Division semifinal, I think that the winner of the Bruins-Capitals series (assuming that they don't have tons of injuries to key players) has a great chance to be the last team standing from the East. That's the thing about playoff hockey though, predictions are useless but the games are always out of this world. Enjoy them everybody, let's hope for a long run for the black and gold.

As We All Predicted, Rookie Dan Vladar Was Fantastic In His First NHL Start For The Bruins

 

    After a rough stretch, the Bruins (15-8-4) were in desperate need of an energy boost. They got it tonight at PPG Paints Arena as they beat Pittsburgh (18-10-1) 2-1 behind 34 saves (including a show-stopping paddle save on a stunned Colton Sceviour) from rookie goaltender Dan Vladar in his first career NHL start. How improbable was this result? Well, the Penguins had won six games in a row along with their last seven consecutive contests at home against Boston. A third-round pick in 2015 (75th overall), Vladar's only other NHL appearance was mop-up duty in one loss last postseason against the Lightning. He's tall (6-foot-5) and could use a trip to the North End (185 pounds?) but the lanky 23-year-old Czech made it all work against one of the league's top teams. 

    This matchup on the second night of a back-to-back set felt like a playoff game for many reasons, beginning with the final score. Once again the B's scored first as superstar right wing David Pastrnak finished a breakaway with a nifty backhander through Penguins goaltender (and UNH alum/NH native) Casey DeSmith's five-hole. Pasta's team-high 13th goal of the season came just 3:20 into the first period and it was assisted by left wing Brad Marchand whose pass sprung him and defenseman Matt Grzelcyk picked up the second helper. Penguins left wing and one of my all-time favorite PC alums Brandon Tanev answered at 15:22 of the first period when he put in a rebound from the doorstep. BU center Evan Rodrigues and right wing Kasperi Kapanen had the assists on Tanev's seventh goal of the season.

    Boston defenseman Jarred Tinordi was in the middle of everything as a big hit on Penguins star Evgeni Malkin in the first period ended his night early. Later, he was on the other end of a monster collision with Tanev in the second period that resulted in Tinordi leaving with an upper-body injury and Tanev was wrongly assessed a boarding call and game misconduct penalty. The domino effect of this was that B's defenseman Charlie McAvoy ended up playing more than half of the game (30:16) which is insane in the regular season but what else could Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy do? The Black and Gold can't afford another injury to a defenseman so let's hope that Tinordi is alright. They are already missing Kevan Miller (of course), Brandon Carlo, Jeremy Lauzon and John Moore to various injuries so a journeyman that they just got off of waivers a few weeks ago is actually very important for the time being. 

    Another rookie for Boston came through with the game-winning goal as left wing Trent Frederic's floating wrist shot through major traffic found its way past DeSmith at 7:07 of the third period. Frederic's fourth goal of the season was assisted by defenseman Jakub Zboril and center Patrice Bergeron. With the victory, Boston improved to 3-1 against Pittsburgh this season and they pulled back within three points of them for third-place in the East Division (the Pens have still played 2 more games than them). The Bruins couldn't pick a better time to play the Sabres (6-18-4)-who are by far the worst team in the entire league. The B's are in Buffalo on Thursday (7, NESN) and Saturday afternoon (1, NESN) to take on a sorry excuse for an NHL team that has lost 12 straight games. It sounds like goaltender Tuukka Rask could return for one of those games but there's a little less of a rush now knowing that Vladar more than earned another start at some point this season.

Bruins Blow Out The Capitals 5-1 After Another Dirty Hit By Wilson Sends Carlo To The Hospital

 

    Hockey is a violent sport (or at least it used to be) so there are going to be big hits, fights and nasty plays. That's a given but it also goes by an unspoken code of conduct that helps decide what is over the line and thus must be answered for (usually by dropping the gloves). Tonight at the TD Garden, the Bruins (13-5-3 overall, 6-1-1 home) destroyed the Capitals (13-6-4 overall, 6-3-2 away) 5-1 but probably all that anyone will remember is the latest ugly incident involving Washington's goon Tom Wilson. He took a run at Boston's defenseman Brandon Carlo and knocked his head into the glass in a very hard manner. The end result was that Carlo went to the hospital in an ambulance and yet somehow Wilson didn't get called for a single penalty. Thankfully, the B's made him pay later as he fought their newest defenseman Jarred Tinordi in the second period then rookie left wing Trent Frederic sparred with him in the third period. 

    Wilson has been suspended four times by the NHL so honestly I hope that the league gives him a very serious punishment for that totally unnecessary play that could result in a serious injury to Carlo or whomever is on the other end of it. Enough is enough, this guy is an embarrassment to the league. Ok, moving on from that asshat. After Wednesday's 2-1 shootout loss, the B's improved to 2-0-2 vs. the Capitals this season-only halfway through their eight scheduled meetings they've notched six out of a possible eight points. Bruins left wing Brad Marchand got it started with a backhander at 14:21 of the first period that made it 1-0 in favor of the home team. Center Patrice Bergeron and defenseman Charlie McAvoy had the assists on Marchand's team-high 11th goal of the season. 

    The second period is when Boston really started to pull away from Washington by scoring three more unanswered goals in the frame. Frederic re-directed a sweet pass by McAvoy at 6:43. Right wing Craig Smith added the secondary assist on Frederic's third goal of the season. Boston's top forward line combined for a beautiful tally that made it 3-0 at 9:01: center Patrice Bergeron had basically the entire net to shoot at as right wing David Pastrnak's feed went by Marchand and to Bergy who slammed it in for his ninth goal of the season. That barrage concluded with another re-direct-this time it was defenseman Matt Grzelcyk finding Marchand at the side of Washington's net to tap it in.

    Ritchie one-timed a sweet pass from Krejci and right wing Craig Smith at 1:05 for his eighth goal of the season. The tally came a few seconds before Frederic fought Wilson and it was the only marker allowed by backup goaltender Ilya Samsonov (6 saves) who came on in relief of rookie starter Vitek Vanecek (14 saves, 10-5-3) late in the second period. The only thing that prevented B's goaltender Jaroslav Halak (31 saves, 5-2-1) from earning the shutout was a goal by Caps right wing Jakub Vrana at 13:36. The snipe was his eighth goal of the season and it was assisted by center Nicklas Backstrom (700th NHL point) and right wing T.J. Oshie. 

    Boston returns to practice tomorrow at Warrior Ice Arena before hosting the free-falling Devils (7-10-2) on Sunday night (5, NESN). New Jersey has lost their last four games in a row and they are 3-7-0 in their last 10 games. I know that they have given the Bruins trouble in earlier meetings this season but the B's should be able to handle them this time around. Center Charlie Coyle surprisingly returned this evening after missing only one game due to the health and safety protocols (maybe he had a false positive?) and if Carlo misses time, I'd expect to see John Moore back in the lineup while he is out. Fingers crossed that Carlo is OK and also that Wilson gets a serious suspension from the NHL, otherwise what are we even doing here? 

UPDATE 3/6/21: Today was a good day as Carlo returned home from the hospital and Wilson was suspended for seven games by the NHL Department of Player Safety. 

For The First Time Since 2006, Zdeno Chara Came To The TD Garden Not As A Bruin But As A Visitor

 

    It still stings that Zdeno Chara is currently playing well for another NHL team and not for the Bruins (12-5-3) who could sure use him right about now with all the injured defensemen that they have had lately. Tonight at the TD Garden he returned with his new club-the Capitals (13-5-4)-for his first trip to Boston as a visitor since 2006 and it was a memorable game (at least for the former Bruins captain) as Washington won 2-1 in a shootout for their season-high fourth straight win. The Caps remain two points ahead of the Islanders (12-6-4) and three points ahead of the Bruins for first-place in the East Division. Left wing Jakub Vrana had the lone goal in the shootout as all three of Boston's shooters (Jake DeBrusk, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand) could not find the back of the net against Caps goaltender Vitek Vanecek (18 saves, 10-4-3).  

    Unlike the Caps, the B's got off to a great start to this campaign but since then they have lost five of their last seven games. The sad reality is that this is how the rest of the regular season will probably go, with Washington chasing an East Division title while Boston jousts with the second-tier teams under this temporary alignment. This was the third of eight meetings between these teams and each has been decided in a different way: overtime, regulation and then a shootout. If you missed the first two periods of this barnburner, consider yourself lucky. Not only was it scoreless after 40 minutes of action but the shots were 11-9 in favor of the Capitals. I think I fell asleep just writing that, ugh. 

    Bruins right wing David Pastrnak had hit the post twice earlier in the game (on the same shot!) and he was the one who not surprisingly put a jolt of life into this yawnfest. Marchand forced a turnover in Boston's end then went into a 2-on-1 with Pasta that resulted in the latter's team-high 10th goal of the season after a sweet re-direct at 1:19 of the third period. Like many leads for the B's in 2021, it didn't last very long though as Washington tied it at 6:14 on center Lars Eller's shot from in close off a rebound that eluded Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask (27 saves, 8-3-3). As you can guess from the save totals, Rask was the busier goalie and he was the reason that the home team walked away with a point since he made a brilliant stop in overtime on defenseman Dmitry Orlov's re-direct that most times results in a goal. 

    Even with no fans in the stands-at least for a few more weeks-the Bruins played a nice tribute video for Chara and he must have felt right at home again as Boston failed in a shootout just like old times. This was a very chippy affair and these teams meet again on Friday (7, NESN) at the Garden so I'd expect more big hits and physical play with possibly a fight or two to top it all off in the rematch. More importantly, the Black and Gold could use a win against the Caps to prove that they are going to be right there with them all spring rather than stuck in their rear view mirror. Center David Krejci and defenseman Matt Grzelcyk each returned to the lineup this evening after injuries forced them to miss time and it also marked the Bruins debut of defenseman Jarred Tinordi-who they had claimed off waivers from Nashville on Saturday. The other big news before the game for the B's was that center Charlie Coyle went onto the league's Covid list (only the 2nd Bruin to have that happen this season after forward Karson Kuhlman) so he'll be out at least for a couple of games.